27/9/09 Holme

A full day in the Holme area was unsurprisingly a bit quiet given the wind direction but a few bits and pieces were noted. Overhead passage early morning in particular was fairly productive. All day totals included 4 Bearded Tits west, 1 Tree Pipit west, 2 Rock Pipits west, 3 Tree Sparrows, 2 Crossbills east, 3 Siskins east, 10 Skylarks west, 5 House Martins west, 3 Swallows west, 3 Snipe west, 5 Pied Wagtails west, 26 Jackdaws west, 6 Carrion Crows west, 200+ Starlings west and 80 Meadow Pipits west. Grounded migrants included 1 Blackcap, 5 Chiffchaff, 6 Song Thrush and 6 Mistle Thrush. Seawatching yielded 2 Great Skuas west, 1 Arctic Skua west, 7 Guillemots (5 on sea, 2 west), 2 Fulmars (1 east, 1 west), 7 Red-throated Divers (1 east, 6 west), 2 Diver sp. west, 42 Gannets, 3 Great-crested Grebes and 133 Common Scoters. Pink-footed Geese numbers were well up, with at least 400 noted, 2 Cetti's Warblers were on the NOA reserve and a Greenshank flew west. Greenfinches, Goldfinches and Chaffinches were also more prominent than usual, with 20, 40 and 37 respectively.

20/9/09 Holme and north of Wells

A dawn start at Holme produced quite a bit of overhead passage, with 4 Grey Wagtails, 3 Crossbills, 40 Meadow Pipits and a Rock Pipit (my first of the autumn) west, as well as 6 Siskins east, while grounded migrants included 2 Bullfinches, 15 Robins, 4 Chiffchaffs and 5 Song Thrushes. The sea was reasonable as well, with 2 Arctic Skuas, 1 Great Skua, 1 skua sp, 1 Greylag Goose (first time I can recall seeing one on a seawatch here!) and 1 Red-breasted Merganser west, as well as a Brent Goose east (my first of the autumn), 10 Red-throated Divers (6 west, 4 east) and 20 Gannets. With it feeling quite good an emergency plan was made to head out to East Hills. A Spotted Flycatcher at the end of the Warham track was a good sign. Song Thrushes darted out of bushes and Robins ticked away from the denser patches of cover, while Greenshanks seemed to be constantly flying overhead, calling loudly. A few other species were added to the growing tally of migrants as we headed deeper into the cover, with the highlight being a Yellow-browed Warbler in the sycamores. A decent tally of stuff without being too exceptional. Grounded migrants: 1 Yellow-browed Warbler, 2 Redstarts, 2 Spotted Flycatchers, 3 Wheatears, 12 Song Thrushes, 20 Robins, 5 Chiffchaffs, 2 Lesser Whitethroats, 1 Common Whitethroat. Other sightings included 15 Greenshanks and a Kestrel. A chance stop at Snettisham RSPB as we neared home came good, as we arrived to find people watching the previously elusive Wryneck. It showed well in the side of a dead elder before flying deep into cover, an excellent end to a solid September day.

East Hills: - ***SAFETY ADVISORY*** Do not go out here without good local knowledge, the timings of tides etc. explained and, preferably, having been shown the way by someone who knows- at least once!

16/9/09 Holme Dunes

Another afternoon seawatch from Gore point 5:55-7:05pm produced a small grebe sp. (Black-necked/Slavonian) on the sea but a firm identification wasn't possible in the choppy conditions and it soon drifted east. Otherwise it was a little quiet with 26 Arctic Skuas west, 6 Manx Shearwaters west, 1 Great Skua west and 27 Wigeon west.

14/9/09 Holme Dunes

After some excellent seawatching from the coast over the past few days I grabbed some time at Holme after school. The following was recorded from Gore point 6:15-7:00pm: 2 Sooty Shearwaters (1 east 6:39pm, 1 west 6:53pm), 2 Great Skuas west, 14 Arctic Skuas (10 west, 4 east), 4 Kittiwakes west, 25 Teal west, 4 Eiders west and 50 Gannets (10 west, 4o east).

12/9/09 north Norfolk coast

A thrash around Burnham Overy Dunes, from the A149 to Gun hill and then across to Holkham Pines and back to the main road, from dawn, was pretty unproductive. 4 Grey Wagtails flew west during the morning, as did a Yellow Wagtail, while a single Wheatear was in the dunes. The west end of Holkham pines was more productive, with 2 Pied Flycatchers of particular note. At least 15 Chiffchaffs, 4 Blackcaps and 8 Lesser Whitethroats were scattered through the area, while a quick look at the sea produced 25 Gannets, 3 Kittiwakes east and 2 Arctic Skuas west. Out on the freshmarsh at least 150 Pink-footed Geese were present, my first of the year, with a single White-fronted Goose. Moving on to Warham Greens another 7 Chiffchaffs, 2 Blackcaps and 5 Lesser Whitethroats were noted. At least 11 Common Buzzards were seen (3 Holkham freshmarsh, 2 Wells, 6 over Wells East Hills), suggesting some movement. The final stop was at Titchwell RSPB where 2 Little Stints and a Curlew Sandpiper were present on the freshmarsh.

8/9/09 Holme NOA

With northerly winds during the day I felt an evening seawatch at Holme NOA might prove productive. Myself and dad joined Ray who was already in position. Unfortunately it was quiet, with 10 Arctic Skuas west and an auk sp. (almost certainly a Puffin but a little distant) east the best until 7:05pm. At this time myself and dad simultaneously picked up a large bird flying west just over the horizon at some distance offshore and quite a way round to the east. Ray R. quickly got onto it but as it continued round it dropped height until it was low over the water. It quickly became obvious that it had to be a raptor, and a massive one at that, being noticeably larger and heavier than the Gannets that had been passing at the same distance and I have seen Marsh Harriers several times offshore here before. The wingbeats were shallow and as a consequence mostly downwards, but they were obviously very powerful. At this stage it was possible to pick up some colour. The mantle was obviously light brown and briefly appeared flecked. As the bird approached the turbines it gained in height and began gliding. At one stage it briefly backed round and looked like it might head towards us but all too quickly it veered of towards the Lincolnshire coast. This did at least allow us a better look at the bird’s profile. The three of us felt confident that the bird was a near-certain Eagle sp. and I felt White-tailed Eagle was most likely based on the structure of the bird and the tone of the mantle colour. I quickly put it on the pager as such to alert those on the Lincolnshire coast. Obviously the difficulty of seperating this from an aquila eagle species, for example, at this distance and with my lack of experience with most eagle species would be very difficult and hence a certain identification is not attainable - a very interesting bird though.

6/9/09 north coast

An afternoon trip round the north coast produced a fairly well-marked albeit slightly faded adult DOTTEREL on private farmland amongst a group of Golden Plovers.

5/9/09 Holme NOA

A couple of stints seawatching from the dunes totalling 5 hours 40 minutes (6:30-10:30am and 3:40-5:20pm) failed to produce the hoped-for Long-tailed Skua but was at least reasonably active, with 49 Great Skuas, 28 Arctic Skuas, 8 Manx Shearwaters, 20 Black Terns, 225 Gannets, 16 Arctic Terns, 14 Fulmars, 32 Teal, a Wigeon, an auk sp. and 4 Red-throated Divers. It was quiet on land but a Wheatear, a Blackcap and a Willow Warbler were in the dunes and 2+ Cetti's Warblers were on the NOA reserve. Overhead passage included 24 Meadow Pipits, 3 Pied Wagtails, 8 Swallows and a Whimbrel.

4/9/09 Cley NWT

A planned sewatch from Holme was aborted in favour of a trip to Cley NWT where good views of the 1st-winter ORTOLAN BUNTING were had as it fed on the path along the east bank alongside 2 Reed Buntings. This was a most welcome British tick for me, especially taking into consideration the greatly increased rarity of this species in the U.K. 2 Curlew Sandpipers were on Arnold's Marsh and 2 Greenshanks and a Spotted Redshank flew over calling. A seawatch from the coastguards (5:05-5:55pm) produced 6 Manx Shearwaters (5 west, 1 east), 4 Black Terns west, 26 Arctic Skuas, 1 Arctic Tern west, 65 Gannets and 32 Fulmars.

3/9/09 Holme NOA

I managed to grab 1.75 hours from the dunes late afternoon (4:15-6:00pm) today and recorded 144 Manx Shearwaters (139 west, 5 east), 2 Black Terns (1 adult west, 1 juvenile east), 27 Fulmars (26 west, 1 east), 29 Gannets (27 west, 2 east), 10 Arctic Terns west, 179 Common Terns west, 43 'commic' terns west, 10 Teal west, 12 Sandwich Terns (1o west, 2 east), 10 Arctic Skuas (8 west, 2 east), 5 Shoveler west, 19 Common Scoters west and a single Great-crested Grebe on the sea. At least 3 Whimbrels and a Greenshank flew overhead calling.

30/8/09 undisclosed

A single juvenile Montagu's Harrier gave very good views during the morning and was regularly doing battle with a Kestrel and a Marsh Harrier! Unfortunately I was only able to obtain distant pictures.